Conflicting sales reports confusing

I realize there needs to be an element of "shock value" in news and in selling newspapers, but the day in and day out of contradicting reports regarding the housing market has become absurd. It's no wonder people are not sure what to do.

On Feb. 25, the Daily Herald business section reported: "Housing industry takes step backward ... Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January as the industry tries to recover from the worst slump in decades ... January sales recorded the lowest level on records going back nearly a half a century ... there is no doubt that January and February are going to be messy months for housing."

Then two days later on Feb. 27, the Daily Herald business section reported: "Home sales continue upswing: Cook and Kane counties boasted the largest percentage gains of home sales in January ... Kane saw its sales soar 43.3 percent and Cook jumped 35.8 percent. Other area counties also saw healthy double digit increases ... biggest driver has been the first-time homebuyer credit so we are expecting to see a lot of activity in March and April."

By the way, the statewide sales change is up a whopping 29.2 percent increase.

I understand that one column is talking new home starts and the other, much more important, is talking about total home sales but 100 percent of Daily Herald readers are local and to report such a disconnect on the same topic on almost back to back days without qualifying the data is not smart and only confuses people. Please be mindful of this moving forward.

Steve Hilbert

Algonquin